I've done my fair share of posts about Donald Trump, making fun of the pompous, racist, billionaire, reality-star, xenphobe, douchebag…. (Did I leave anything out?) In NYC he’s always been an embarrassing joke that often tried to reprsesent the city in a way NO ONE who lives here wants him to. I guess we all imagined that he would have gone away by now, instead of leading the polls in his run for The White House.

It was in this vein that I posted this altered pic of said douchebag on Facebook a few days ago. It got a lot of shares and comments and it seems someone was offended and reported it to Facebook. So, I got a mandatory 24-hour timeout from Facebook yesterday and I had time to reflect on Trump’s Presidential run and his voting duties on the next SNL.

The show is always done in fun, but it has a traditional of making fun of someone they actually semi-endorse. The big exception of late was Tina Fey‘s impression of Sarah Palin, which was ordained by the look-alike gods. But Palin’s appearance on the show did up her cool-factor, in ways that pissed many off. She was a joke –but by being in on it, she seemed cool(er)ish.

With Trump hosting, the ratings will be no doubt be “HUGE” and the $$$ will flow into NBC‘s account with Americans riveted by the train wreck. If there are protests, it will only add energy to the clusterfuck. Some activists have been speaking out against the hosting choice via a number actions, including a HUGE MoveOn.org petition. There are currently 136,569 signatures (they need 150,000) It reads in part…

“Now, just three months after cutting ties with Donald Trump, NBC is seeking to boost its ratings at the expense of Latinos and immigrants by allowing Trump to host one of its most popular shows.
By inviting Donald Trump to host Saturday Night Live, NBC is demonstrating that it doesn’t care about its Latino and pro-immigrant viewers. It is providing a platform for Trump’s insulting attacks on immigrants and calling it entertainment — something we do not find funny.”

I think the protesters are right. Imagine that Trump had made disparaging remarks about African-Americans, the LGBT community or the disabled, would we be so forgiving?

NBC is giving their business partner a unique platform, a 90-minute block to make himself seem more relatable to America. Hillary Clinton only got a cameo and Bernie Sanders has only showed up on Weekend Update slams and via Larry David’s brilliant take last week.

As Flavorwire so eloquently put it;

His very candidacy is stirring up and giving legitimacy to the xenophobic tendencies of some very dangerous people. He’s making sexism seem edgy and acceptable. To take an impartial and critical look at Trump’s buffoonery and its effect on the discourse — and thoroughly enjoy his domination of the media circuit, including SNL, because it’s ‘disruptive’ to the established narrative — is a privilege that only some of us can afford.

If he ends up being the nominee, SNL can shoulder some of the credit and the blame. I’m of the belief that everything is permissible in comedy. Joan Rivers (Trump’s Celebrity Apprentice) pushed boundaries further as she got older because she could, but she was a pro. Comedy is powerful and can fool you into believing that someone bad, is in on the joke and therefore may be not that bad You can look to Richard Nixon‘s appearance on Laugh-Innearly 50 years ago and blame Tricky Dick, once again. To coin a phrase,

“Let’s make America great again… and get rid of Citizen Trump.”

You can sign the moveon.org’s petition here. Thank the Comedy Gods that Twitter will let me post my dick-eating Trump meme pic without repercussions. God Bless America!